Movie 119: Twelve Monkeys

In 1996 a virus is released that will wipe out 5 billion people, the remaining humans living under ground. Scientists in that future send back “volunteer” prisoners to find out how the virus was released and to get a sample of its original form. Unfortunately time travel isn’t quite an exact science and they send Cole (Bruce Willis) back to 1990 where he’s banged up with a real nut job, Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and has a sympathetic shrink Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe).

I mention the last two as they are important characters in the plot. But the plot I cover is something like the first 20 minutes. This is a VERY convoluted movie and I don’t want to spoil any of it.

Time travel is easy to completely arse up, particularly when you hop back and forth like this film does. They’re very clever with it here though and the script writer was obviously careful with how they set out the various character paths.

Unfortunately it makes it a little hard to review without getting in to spoiler territory, so I expect this will be a short one.

It’s a Terry Gilliam film so obviously its pretty fucking weird. In fact with that first 20-30 minutes I wasn’t all that sure I’d like it. The mental hospital didn’t really look like one to me. Because it isn’t, it’s an abandoned prison. That aside and the fact that much of the film is dingy and dirty, and that there’s some strangeness for strangenesses sake, the look doesn’t really detract from the overall movie. I didn’t think it really added much either though besides the overt weirdness possibly adding to how nuts Cole might be. If your trying to help someone keep their mental faculties sticking them half way up a wall with eyeballs on screens and staring at them through a distorting magnifying glass probably isn’t going to work though. Just saying.

All the performances are great. Bruce Willis isn’t in full on action star mode here, but he plays very good slowly deranged. And the Brad Pitt we see is pre-star Brad. He is frankly one of the best actors of his age, and it shows through in his off the wall performance in this.

I’d say that this might be a bit nuts and out there for some people, but if you pay attention and you don’t mind a bit of strangeness you’ll enjoy the hell out of this movie.

Next up: The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys. Which is a bit of a cheat as its basically the making of THIS movie, but its listed as a different documentary movie in most places and it’s feature length.

Further Reading: http://iheartthetalkies.wordpress.com/ reviews the latest releases. And I don’t, well maybe occasionally. So go read her blog.